“The circle of authors will expand” – Kommersant FM

Kommersant FM columnist Dmitry Butkevich talks about how the idea of ​​creating the site came about.

In the summer of 2023, the Museum of Nonconformism opened in Moscow on Myasnitskaya Street, in the building where the dormitory and apartments of the teachers of the Stroganov School were once located. The site has been transformed from the well-known Nadja Brykina Gallery structure, which has existed since 2006.

Nadya has lived in Switzerland since the early nineties, where she also has a gallery of nonconformists. And so she first decided to exhibit her favorite artists in their (and her) historical homeland, then in 2018 she registered a non-profit foundation, and now it’s the museum’s turn. Why? I asked Nadya, whom I have known for a long time, about this:

“I never thought before that there would be a museum, that I could do it. But what happened happened. For some reason, Russian art began to be banned in the West, and it hurt me. Because of my artists, who were banned in Soviet times, there was an idea to preserve these works, to somehow stake a claim. I organized the Museum of Nonconformism in Moscow. We represent the nonconformists of the sixties, but there are also their followers, young artists who also follow their own path. That is, this is a desire for freedom of expression.”

Brykina has always been distinguished by a serious cultural approach to showing her favorite artists, of whom, by the way, she has relatively few: Vladimir Andreenkov, Marlene Spindler, Alexey Kamensky, Mikhail Krunov, Igor Novikov… I probably forgot to mention someone.

She always made each person not only personal works in Zurich and Moscow, but also extensive catalogs with serious research into their work. As Nadya says, this work will continue in the future. Plus, the circle of authors will expand. This is just one of the structures that opened this year. I will tell you more about future museums in 2024 in the following programs.